BUFFALO. 299 



" The bodies of drowned Buffaloes floated past 

 them in vast numbers ; many had drifted on the shore, 

 or against the upper ends of the rafts and islands. 

 These had attracted great flights of Turkey-buzzards." 

 Eichardson and other writers state that there is a wood 

 variety of this species ; there is also a mountain variety in 

 the province of Zacetecas in Mexico ; these, as would be 

 supposed, have long and thick hair or fur on the belly ; 

 tail like the Yak, very thick and full. This might well 

 be . inferred from the elevated regions where they live. 

 A similar example is the Guerza or Abyssinian Monkey. 



Chateaubriand, p. 351, narrates — 



" That the Bison has irregular times of migration : 

 one does not know where it goes, but it appears that it 

 goes further North in summer, since it is found on the 

 confines of the Great Slave Lake. Perhaps it also 

 reaches the Eocky Mountains of the West and the 

 plains of New Mexico on the South. The Bisons are so 

 numerous on the green steppes of the Missouri that, 

 when they migrate, the herd take several days defiling, 

 like an immense army ; their footsteps are heard several 

 miles off, and one feels the earth tremble." 



The Bison does not thrive very well in this country, a 

 dry climate suits it best ; it suffers very much from fogs. 

 A magnificent bull lived for many years in Manchester. 



A similar variety of cattle, also called Bison by many, 

 but more generally known as the Gaur {Bos Gaurus), 

 inhabits the Himalayas and other parts of India ; it 

 resembles the American type in its short curled but 

 blacker hair ; its horns are longer and nearly as thick ; 

 its legs are, however, white. 



